Panel clears ex-NCB chief Sameer Wankhede of fake caste certificate charge
MUMBAI: The Maharashtra government on Saturday cleared the Narcotics Control Bureau's (NCB) former Mumbai Zonal Director Sameer Wankhede, who was accused of submitting an alleged fake caste certificate for a government job.
The government order came after the Mumbai District Caste Scrutiny Committee probed the issue for nearly seven months and gave the clean chit to the IRS officer, currently posted in Chennai.
The panel has concluded that Wankhede is not a Muslim by birth and he belongs to the Mahar community which is a Scheduled Caste.
Former Maharashtra Minister and Nationalist Congress Party leader Nawab Malik - currently in custody - had first raked up the issue, along with other activists like Ashok Kamble, Manoj Sansare, and Sanjay Kambale.
According to the official order, it has not been proved that Wankhede and his father Dnyandev Wankhede had renounced Hinduism to convert to Islam and they both belonged to the Mahar 37 Scheduled Caste, and rejected all the complaints filed against them in the matter.
Soon afterwards, Wankhede tweeted - "Satyameva Jayate" - signifying 'victory of truth', and said he and his family had undergone a lot of trauma due to the matter. Lawyer for Ashok Kamble, advocate Nitin Satpute said that Wankhede's caste issue is already under challenge in the Bombay High Court in a writ petition filed last year. (IANS)
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